It sounds like such a hard thing to do, but it’s so easy.
The only negative about making your own stock is that after you’ve sucked the life out of everything in the pot and strain it, you have a big bunch of creepy crap to throw away.
Let’s start with chicken stock. So every time I make a chicken, not generally when I’m cooking it already in the Crock-Pot, but when I roast a chicken or I have a bunch of chicken bones from something I cook, I save them. If I don’t have time to cook them right away, I will take all the icky bones and leftover meat, (like if somebody didn’t eat a drumstick), and put it in a Ziploc bag and put it in the freezer and save it for when I do have a minute.
Basically all you do is to take all that junk that’s left over from a chicken in a pot (crock pot), and then I add a couple of bay leaves, I put Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. And then I put in Mirepoix, (that I always get from Trader Joe’s, which is the carrots, onions and celery). If you don’t have the Mirepoix already cut up, then you can use two carrots, two celery, and a medium onion. Then cover with water. Then you cook it all day long (8 hours on low).
Now don’t boil it. Once a long time ago I boiled it because I was in a big hurry and I wanted to go somewhere. I boiled the stock and then it became cloudy. It was cloudy and it freaked me out. I looked it up and the internet said it was because I emulsified all the oil into it and it’s just not going to taste as good. I threw it away. So just let it simmer all day. It smells up the house, and it’s amazing.
When it’s done, you strain it. You take all that now really ugly stuff back out. I put it on a big platter for it to cool. Once strained you then have this beautiful stock. I can use it then or I can save it for later and freeze it. The only unpleasant part is that all big, ugly mess of cooked stuff. You then put it in a little bag and throw it away.
It’s actually so simple to do. You just throw a bunch of stuff destined for the trash anyway in the Crock-Pot. If you don’t have all those herbs, you don’t have to use it. Homemade stock just makes a huge difference in the flavor of whatever you’re making.
As far as beef stock goes, you do the same thing with beef bones and all the herbs and veggies, but you really have to do that with “color.” It’s just a nice idea to take whatever leftover beef bones that you have and stick it in the oven and get a little color on them, by that I mean, some caramelization, cook them a little. Brown bits equal color. And then for some reason, I always stick in a tomato with the bones, when I’m browning all of the meat in the oven, it’s just a rule of thumb to use a little bit of tomato when you’re making beef stock, because it makes it richer in some ways.
So as far as making your own fish stock, I don’t want fresh stock that bad. What you really do with that is, (you still use your mirepoix and all the aromatics), you actually cook the shells from shrimp or fish bones. The only type that I’ve ever made is a bisque is with shrimp shells. And I’ve done it a couple of times to make a lobster, crab or shrimp bisque.
So that ends this lesson. Have fun with making stock. It’s a totally “brag” thing to do and totally worth it, even with a little mess.
